NLDS Recap: Dodgers’ season on the brink after loss to Snakes

CHAVEZ RAVINE, CA — On the plus side, it looks like I won’t be wasting any money on World Series tickets this year. In yet another borderline pathetic showing, the Dodgers proved themselves incapable of getting anything going offensively, and let a three-run first from the D-backs sink them in another painfully disappointing loss to an inferior Arizona team. This one wasn’t quite as humiliating as Game 1, but their 4-2 defeat at the hands of the Snakes put them in a hole that only two teams have climbed out of in the nearly 30-year history of the Division Series.

So how did it happen? Well, Bobby Miller, the boy wonder, didn’t have his best stuff and got knocked around a bit in the first, and then got lifted in the second. The bullpen did what they could, but the game was basically lost before any of them even took the mound.

The reason for this is that for a second straight night, the Dodgers looked totally lost at the plate. On Saturday night, it was Merrill Kelly who befuddled the LA hitters. On Tuesday, it was Zac Gallen‘s turne. The Cy Young contender went 5.1 innings and surrendered only a solo home run to J.D. Martinez, who was basically the only Dodger to do anything with the lumber in his hand in the this one. Martinez went 2-for-3 and drove in a run. Everybody else was garbage.

But the Dodgers had their chances in this one. They had two runners on in the fifth before Gallen left the game, but Mookie Betts bounced out into a fielder’s choice and Freddie Freeman watched strike three sail right by him with his bat on his shoulder. Then in the sixth the Dodgers’ loaded up the bases against the bullpen of Arizona, but couldn’t get a key hit. Kike Hernandez got an infield single to cut the deficit to 4-2, but James Outman struck out and pinch-hitter Kolten Wong (yes, you read that right) bounced an inning-ending groundball to first base to squelch the threat and crush the Dodgers’ hopes of a comeback.

Facing the high-leverage arms of the Arizona pen, the Dodgers went pretty quietly the rest of the way. Double plays in the seventh and eighth erased baserunners in both innings, and against closer Paul Sewald in the ninth, the bottom of the order went down 1-2-3 to end the game.

So Dodgers, the ball is in your court. What are you going to do in Arizona? Are you going to fight like hell to bring the series back to L.A.? Or, are you going to roll over like the overpriced, soft team that everyone always accuses you of being? A lot of the legacy of this season depends on the outcome of the next five days. Who are you, Dodgers? And how badly do you want this thing, anyhow?